[*BCM*] Dynamo Lights

[Ethan Woehrling]

Bottle (rim-type) dynamo lights have come on in leaps and bounds, and are no longer the rubbish they were when we were young.

Hub dynamos have the advantage of being "on" at the flick of a switch, rahter than getting off your bike and slotting the bottle on.  Also, less easy to vandalise.  Hub dynamos, however, are not only more expensive, but they cause some drag, even when not on.  Sheldon Brown has a piece on hub dynamos (suprise suprise) as do the CTC (UK's cyclist touring club).  

The best Hub dynamo is Schmidt's SON, which has very low drag - but costs about $150.  You then need to actually buy the lights to work off your dynamo - where you can now chose between front, front and back, bulb and led lights.  LED lights being more expensive, but the bulbs won't blow out on you.  A very nice front light to go with hub dynamos is the solidlight, which has two leds with the second going on once you reach enough speed/output - very bright indeed.  Unfortunately a SON+Solidligt combination will cost you about as much as your first bike.



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